Short Summary

A businessman alleged to be a former Gestapo chief was being guarded by secret servicemen in La Paz, Bolivia, this week as pressure mounted for his extradition to France to face war crimes charges.

Description

A businessman alleged to be a former Gestapo chief was being guarded by secret servicemen in La Paz, Bolivia, this week as pressure mounted for his extradition to France to face war crimes charges.

He's 56-year-old Bolivian national Klaus Altmann, who settled in the country in 1951. The French authorities claim he is really Klaus Barbie, Gestapo chief in Lyon during World War Two who was responsible for the torture and death of hundred of French resistance fighters. He was condemned to death in his absence by a French court after the war.

Shortly after Altmann was filmed at his villa on Tuesday, the French Ambassador in La Paz formally asked the Bolivian Foreign Ministry for an extradition order. At the end of the week, Altmann was reportedly in jail in Bolivia for debt.